A conventional “penthouse” cooling system uses the upper floor of the data center building as a large cooling plenum with multiple chambers for cooling, filtering and directing the fresh air used to cool the data center. A “penthouse” area is built above a data server room which contains many data servers, each of which generates heat during operation. The servers must be cooled for optimum performance. In the conventional penthouse cooling system, cool air enters the server room from the overhead penthouse area using the natural tendency for cold air to fall and hot air to rise. This eliminates the need to use air pressure to force cool air up through a raised floor. The cool air passes through a series of air filters and one or more misting chambers where a fine spray is applied to further control the temperature and humidity. The air continues through another filter to absorb the mist, and then through a fan wall that pushes the air through openings in the floor that serve as an air shaft leading into the server area. The temperature and flow of cooling air through the airshafts, however, can be difficult to control for a desired airflow temperature provided to the server room. The cooling system, including the fans in the fan wall, can create elevated noise conditions in the server room, as well as outside the server room and outside the data center. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved airflow system configurable for use with a penthouse cooling system for a data server room.
The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the claimed embodiments. Further, the drawings have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be expanded or reduced to help improve the understanding of the embodiments. Moreover, while the disclosed technology is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail below. The intention, however, is not to unnecessarily limit the embodiments described. On the contrary, the embodiments are intended to cover all suitable modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the embodiments as defined by the appended claims.